The Inventions

    Paper was first made in the year 105. It was made by a Chinese named Cai Lun.

    For over 500 years paper was made only in China. People in Japan learned of paper around the year 600. As years went by, people in other places began to make paper.

    The lead（铅）pencil is not made of lead. It is made of graphite（石墨）. People found graphite in 1564. They thought it was a kind of lead. Today we still call pencils “lead pencils”. The first pencils were made by putting strings（线）around sticks of graphite.

    The first wooden pencils were made by Kasper Faber in Germany in 1761.

    Erasers（橡皮）like those we use today were first made in France by a man named Magellan in 1752. It was Hyman L. Lipman who first put eraser on the ends of pencils. And that is how the pencils came to be.

  1. How many years earlier was paper made in China than in Japan?

    A. About 100 years.                B. About 400 years.

    C. More than 500 years.             D. 495 years

  2. Germans made paper _________.

    A. earlier than Japan                B. later than Japan

    C. as early as Japan                 D. as late as Japan

  3. At first pencils were made of ________.

    A. wood         B. lead          C. sticks          D. string and graphite

  4. Kasper Faber was ________.

    A. an Englishman            B. a Frenchman

    C. a German             D. an American

  5. Which of the following statements is NOT true?

    A. Paper was first made in China.

    B. Graphite isn’t a kind of lead.

    C. The first wooden pencils were made in Germany.

D. Hyman L. Lipman made the first erasers.

If we want to deal with the association(社交) between boys and girls properly, here are some “dos and don’ts” for you to follow.

  Keep a normal and healthy state of mind. Our schools and classes are made up of boys and girls. It is very nature for the boys and girls to make friends with each other. We should make as many friends as possible. We should keep touch with the other sex(性别) in public instead of in secret.

  Don’t be too nervous or too shy. If you are a shy person, you can also find a way out. First of all, you can make friends with the students who have the same interest and hobby as you. As both of you have much in common, you may have much to talk about. If you keep doing like that, little by little, you will gladly find you are also as free to express yourself as others.

  Don’t fall into the ditch of early love. The boys and girls at a adolescence (青春期) are rich in feeling. They are easy to regard the friendship as a sign of love and fall in love with each other at an early age. In my opinion, early love is a green apple that can’t be eaten. An apple won’t taste sweet until it is full ripe. Boys and girls at middle school are too young to carry the heavy duty of love. Do keep out of early love.

(   )61. The main idea of the passage is to _______.

   A. tell students to keep away from early love

   B. give some advice on how to associate between boys and girls

   C. tell students how to make friends             D. teach boys how to talk with girls

(   )62. We should keep touch with the other sex in following ways EXCEPT _______.

   A. with a good state of mind    B. in real friendship   C. in public   D. in secret

(   )63. If you are a shy person, you can ________.

   A. find friends with the same interest and hobby first

   B. only have a few friends of the same sex

   C. not make friends with the other sex        D. not fall in love with other students easily

(   )64. What does the underlined word “ditch” mean?

   A. 波浪     B. 泥潭      C. 圈套      D. 迷惑

(   )65. A person at adolescence is ________.

   A. complicated(复杂的)in feelings     B. good at making friends with each other

   C. old enough to fall in love          D. easy to regard the friendship as a sign of love

On April 10, 1912, the Titanic started her first trip from Southampton, England, to New York City, US. The ship was the world’s largest and most luxurious（豪华的）one at that time.
    High-class facilities（设备）for passengers including restaurants, a library and a swimming pool made the ship like a floating hotel. More importantly, its owners and builders said it was unsinkable（不会下沉的）.

    However, on April 15, the ship sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean and killed over 1,500 people.  

This April 15, on the 100th anniversary（周年纪念）of the sinking of the Titanic, people in the UK and US will hold activities to remember the event. James Cameron’s 1997 film, Titanic, was a huge hit all around the world. Now the 3-D film will come to Chinese theaters on April 10. It is a love story between a poor young man named Jack and a rich young woman named Rose on the unlucky ship. In Belfast, UK, the port of the Titanic’s birth, a museum called Titanic Belfast will open to the public.
    Today, the sinking of the Titanic is not just an accident. It has become a popular expression to mean a large disaster or mistake, usually because of too much confidence.
    In the UK, if somebody says that his or her mobile phone is really great and could never break, others might say, “Yeah, and people said the Titanic was unsinkable.” In other words, no matter how confident or proud people are about something, anything can go wrong.

43. The first and second paragraph mainly tells us _____.

A. Titanic had High-class facilities                  B. the ship was built in 1912

C. what kind of ship Titanic was                   D. Titanic was like a hotel

44. What’s the meaning of the underlined word “hit” in Paragraph 4?

A. Success              B. Break                        C. Knock                      D. Movie

45. In which situation can we say “The Titanic was unsinkable” to Tom?

A. He is worried about the result of his exam.    B. He wants to make friends with Jack.

C. He is sure to win in the competition.         D. He is asking for a day off.

46. Through the passage, the writer wants to tell us that _____.

A. Titanic was an unlucky ship                            

B. any mobile phone can go wrong

C. the 3-D film “Titanic” will be put on in China

D. never being too confident or proud about anything

In Europe many people died during the Second World War. So at the end of the war, there were many children who lost their parents.

    A man called Hermann Gmeiner wanted to help these children. His idea was simple. He wanted the children who had no parents to have a home. He wanted them to have the deep love and good care of parents.

    Gmeiner had no enough money, so he asked the people to give him some money. With this money he built the first SOS Children's Village at last, in Australia. It was open in 1949 .This is how the SOS Children's Village started. The letters SOS come from “Save our Souls.” The words mean “Please help us!” An SOS Children's Village can give help to the children who need help.

    Hermann Gemeiner's idea for helping orphans soon spread(传播) all over the world. By 1983 there were 17 SOS Children's Villages in the world.

    Now China has also built many SOS Children's Villages. More and more people like to do something to show their love to the children in the SOS Children's Villages. Do you want to visit an SOS village someday?

51.________    52._______    53._______    54._______    55._______

56.________    57._______    58._______    59._______    60._______

In 1826, a Frenchman named Niepce needed pictures for his business. But he was not a good artist, so he invented a very simple camera. He put it in a window of his house and took a picture of his garden. That was the first photo.

The next important date in the history of photography (摄影) was in 1837. That year, Daguerre, another Frenchman, took a picture of his reading room. He used a new kind of camera in a different way. In his picture you could see everything very clearly, even the smallest thing. This kind of photo was called Daguerreotype.

Soon, other people began to use Daguerre’s way. Travelers brought back wonderful photos from all around the world. People took pictures of famous buildings, cities and mountains.

In about 1840, photography was developed. Then photographers could take pictures of people and moving things. That was not simple. The photographers had to carry a lot of film and other machines. But this did not stop them, for example, some in the United States worked so hard. Mathew Brady was a famous American photographer. He took many pictures of great people. The pictures were unusual because they were very lifelike (栩栩如生的).

Photography also became a kind of art by the end of the 19th century. Some photos were not just copies of the real world. They showed ideas and feelings, like other art forms.

Answer the following questions according to what you read.

6. Who took the first photo?

7. The Daguerreotype was a kind of photo, wasn’t it?

8. If a photographer wanted to take pictures of moving things in 1840, what did he have to do?

9. Why was Mathew Brady famous?

10. When did photography become a kind of art?